Another book on the seventies the decade where things went south to where we are today. I read these and other toxicology post mortems on this decade because that is where the bad turn to our present happened. We haven't escaped that decade yet in the year of our lord 2021. If you want to really know how the world works you should pay attention to the political economy of this decade that instantiated the long backlash.

Got me back into non-fiction after a long hiatus. And totally explained my mother, which was nice.

bias was so exaggerated it was almost hilarious. i finished the book not convinced that schulman actually believed his thesis that the 70s were a decade of cultural significance as he spends a healthy chunk dissing reagan into the dirt. some interesting criticism on music, but i think this undertaking was too ambitious and he would have been better off focusing his argument on media rather than economics and politics.

The author's mostly liberal social and political opinions of the late sixties and eighties with a little commentary on the seventies. Playing fast and loose with the facts (one passage specifies an event that the author claims in the next sentence to have a result in the previous year) to 'prove' his opinions, this book fails at being a historical narrative. In fact, it is so far over into opinion vs fact I cannot bring myself to add it to a "History" bookshelf; it's more at home on my "Historical Fiction" shelf.
It focuses mostly on Nixon and Reagan using negative language whenever possible and only with a begrudging admission of facts that are simply too big to be glossed over. Carter is also highlighted in clumsy and disjointed attempts to elevate the memory of his presidency.

Don't get me wrong, the book does deal with some aspects of the seventies, but has major gaps and omissions. If you're looking for something dealing primarily with looking objectively back at the seventies, this book isn't for you.

I enjoyed this book. Schulman makes a convincing case for the transformative power of the seventies over American life- from the ascendancy of the Sunbelt region to the subversion of Richard Nixon. The parallels between the seventies and now are equally fascinating and depressing.

This is what history should be. Of course I do not agree with everything, but it is thought provoking and entertaining.

I don't think I have encountered in recent memory a book so heavily lifted from other sources. There are over 50 pages dedicated just to the notes section. It was not what I had hoped it would be.

Read this for a course, but it was very good. It's not a very long book, but it is densely packed with information. The way it is organized makes it both interesting and informative. The author dances between the sixties and the eighties, exploring the movements, people, and politics of the seventies.

A decent read but a little unbalanced; popular culture is basically glossed in one chapter about music (and pretty much exclusively the disco/punk dichotomy), while there are several dense chapters of economic and political minutiae which become very dull very quickly. The chapters also seem to exist pretty much independently of one another, and apart from the cause/effect relationship between the rise of the Sunbelt and the rise of conservatism and a couple of odd paragraphs about the connection between Rambo and Ronald Reagan Schulman doesn't really bother to connect significant individual cultural movements (feminism, for example) with the larger ideological shifts of the nation. 2.5 but Goodreads still hasn't given us half stars, so I rounded up.

In Bruce Shulman’s all-encompassing history of the forgotten decade of the 1970s, he sheds light on what was a defining era in American politics and society. Using primarily cultural sources Schulman’s primary thesis suggests that the 1970s was an era in which the melting pot ideal finally gave way to a more centrifugal society, in which diversity was prioritised above integration and Americans found that their interests were better served within their separate spheres of identity rather than as a consummate whole. Groups ranging from African Americans, to the white working class, through to various Christian organisations and even the elderly, found that the fragmentation of society and ultimately a form of cultural separatism best served their interests. This essentially marked the end of the national unification project peddled during the War years, and started a ‘turning inward, and the process of separation which many argue has led to the cultural divisions that define modern America. For the first time since the 1930s, Schulman argues, White ethnicity was revived and the concept of citizenship was once again given equal footing with heritage. America, Schulman suggests, was once again a culturally pluralist nation.
Furthermore, Schulman notes that the 1970s marked a significant shift in the geographical center of political power in the US, arguing that the rise of the sunbelt and the relative decline of the northeast and the Dixiecrat South saw the political spectrum shift rightwards and towards a new Republicanism that began under Nixon and would reach its pinnacle in the election of Regan. Schulman details the evolution of anti-government sentiment that led eventually to the tax revolt across the nation and the culmination of small government conservatism that dominated the early years of the 1980s. Schulman also unwittingly outlines the ways in which the shift in American culture and politics in the 1970s laid the groundwork on which Trumpism would rise almost half a century later, and although the author could not have been aware that the decade would have such a lasting and fundamental impact on the American political landscape, his book makes essential reading for anyone who wants to historicise and contextualize Trump’s America.
All in all Schulman provides a fairly comprehensive history of the decade, but his ‘standard text’ has some large gaps which historians are only now beginning to fill, namely the rise of a new white nationalism in the 70s and the birth of the new far right counterculture. The movement was far from insignificant, and would later be responsible for some of the most jarring moments in modern American history (Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Oklahoma City to name but a few) and as such it does seem like a glaring and almost deliberate omission by the author. However Schuman’s use of cultural sources and accessible language nonetheless make this an easy and informative read that sheds light on America’s forgotten decade.

I felt that this book was inconsistent in its approach to the overlooked decade of the 1970s. There were sections which were fascinating as we saw government morph into the age of Nixon, music evolve into punk and disco (now there are two conflicting styles!!!), and the flower power of the 1960s disappear for a more reality based culture. But the author had has own biases which I won't even try to outline and they affected the presentation of the material and made for sections that were painfully dry and pedantic.

It is not to say that this book is not important since it basically gives an overall view of the decade, regardless of what I felt were weaknesses. It was just a little disappointing.

This book is a generally interesting and engaging look at the 1970s. Schulman's main point is that while popular memory gives the 1960s a huge legacy, the 1970s were a more important decade with several lasting changes to America. These changes include: the feminist movement, the growing importance of the South to the nation's politics and culture, the rising tend of small government conservativism, the rise of religious envangelicalism, and the shift from integration to diversity.

It's generally a good book with some nice points along the way, but Schulman keeps getting in his own way. He's often too damn strident in making his arguments, undercutting his points. He says that Jimmy Carter tried to dismiss Hubert Humphrey be calling him Hubert Horatio Hornblower. I mean, it was clearly a misstatement that he immediately corrected. Schulman also said that the Loretta Lynn song "Coal Miner's Daughter" was an example of "southern chauvanism." Seriously? Taking pride in your heritage is automaticaly chauvanism? He says Lynyrd Skynrd "loved the governor" in Sweet Home Alabama, which isn't actually how that line goes. Or that in the film Rambo, Stallone goes up against at redneck, racist sheriff. Do we ever see the sheriff ever interact with any minorities, let alone be racist to any? How is he a redneck - of is being a bad guy lawman automatically let him in the club?

Also, Schulman defines the 1970s as 1968-84, which - I get. I get not sticking with a specific time period to discuss cultural changes. By his chapter on the Reagan adminstration is the longest in the book. Combine that with the bit on the 1960s at the start, and maybe 80% of this book on the 1970s is actually on the 1970s.

Still, there is a lot to like here. Schulman notes how Nixon waged a stealth war against government, not fighting it directly but undercutting it and delegitimizing it. For instance, he actually doubled funding for the NEA and then doubled it again - but engaged in devolution of funds so it was spread around the nation more instead of going to its traditional hangouts, like New York modern art museums. He supported a minimum guaranteed income in order to gut welvare. He saw the rising tide of conservatism and getting their support was the point of the "Silent Majority" speech. He furthered it with things like putting John Connolly in his cabinet. Songs like "Okie from Muskogee" and the 1970 NYC hard hat riot were examples of it as well. Even Watergate helped conservatives but discrediting the government.

Civil rights saw a shift from integration to diversity. The Bakke decision backed this as did the rise in bilingual education. There was a new black middle class, but many were left behind. Black people had lost faith in integration, with the Boston busing riots. The musical shift of Sly Stone & the funk of George Clinton show a more Afro-centric cultural direction. Ditto for blaxploitation movies and rap. Disco was the last great integration cultural movement, and had a big backlash against it.

Self-exploration was a trend in what's known as the "Me Generation." There was an end of common culture and the white ethnic revival. The elderly mobilized, as the AARP went from 1.5 million in 1969 to 12 million in 1980. Florida became a retirement home. Mainstream Protestant denominations went down. Christian music and books became more common. As did New Age stuff.

There's the rise of the South, with Jimmy Carter, the NC Triangle, Lynyrd Skynyrd. The term "Sun Belt" was coined in 1969. Cowboys became America's Team. The population went up by 40% from 1970-90, while only 20% for the entire US. There were less unions down there and more right-to-work laws. These laws restricted union fundraising and banned the closed shop. Business went South. Conservatism went from prep school/Wall Street variety to populaist and anti-establishment. Redneck culture was commercialized.

Carter called for a balanced budget and engaged in de-regulation of banking, airlines, trucking, and communications. Credit cards became computerized in 1973, making that a lot easier. Credit card spending was $14 billion then, but shot up to $66 billion by 1992. Overall debt went from $167 billion in 1975 to $315 billion by 1979. Credit cards didn't cause that - the Great Inflation did. Money market funds rose, as did groups like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Merrill Lynch.

The decade had paranoid political films, anti-corporate punk rock - but also corporate rock (beginning with Peter Frampton)

Feminism: Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Fischer was the hook. In 1970, 30% of moms of young kids (age 6 or younger) worked, but it was over half by 1985. "Our Bodies, Ourselves" became the Bible of the female health movement. In the early 1970s, mainstream media mocked feminists and newsmen like Eric Severeid denied there was any repression of women. But changes were coming. In the DNC, you went form 13% to 40% of delegates from 1968-72. For the RNC, it was 17% to 30% in that same period. The 1970s saw rape laws reformed - it no longer required a witness and a need to prove forced was used. Cross-exam of a women's sexual history was ruled out. Hospitals improved services for rape. 1977 saw the Take Back the Night movement emerge. The pay gap was based more on job types, as a registered nurse earned less than a truck driver or a social worker less than an unskilled construction worker. ERA failed, losing Bible Belt and Mormon Belt states (and Illinois). The 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston provoked a backlash, as anti-feminists organized for it, too. By 1980, gender politics were politically polarized. There were books like Erica Jong's "Fear of Flying" on female sexuality and songs like "Love to Love You Baby." Opponents accused feminists of being lesbians, and NOW's defensive reply cost them support from actual lesbians. America's masculinity template began to shift from John Wayne to Alan Alda. It was OK for men to show emotions and fathers should be less disciplinarians and instead more like Kramer vs. Kramer. Gay rights movement began.

The New Right came from William Buckley Jr., Barry Goldwater and the direct mail efforts of Richard Vigeurie. Anti-elitism and family values were two key themes. For the latter, they opposed sex ed and gay rights. The IRS efforts to take tax exemptions from religious schools poked the bear. The tax revolt actually had liberal roots (check out the SDS 1962 manifesto) but was sparked on a lot by inflation.

Reagan came to power. His "Reagan Doctrine" was about supporting "freedom fighters" rather than sending in US troops. Organized labor continued its decline. He deligitimzed government, continuing what Nixon had begun. The phrase yuppie fit activist-turned-investment banker Jerry Rubin. The term yuppie had a big backlash. Privitization was big, as private sector took over things like security. Residential community organizations took over many government functions, like plowing, park maintanence, and garbage removal.